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Shipp: Who would benefit most from high-density growth?

Where is it written that high-density growth will reduce traffic congestion and smog?

Bill

Shipp

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Answer: Nowhere -- except perhaps in the hearts and minds of the directors of the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority.

These good folks, none of whom was chosen by the electorate, are hinting they will use their awesome powers to withhold millions in transportation funds from rapidly growing counties that:

Fail to adopt zoning ordinances that will promote high-density residential and business development.

Fail to join the cheering section of mass transit.

In the minds of some, these threats raise serious questions about the mission and motives of an agency designed to remove the cloud over federal highway funds for the state. GRTA's job, as I understood it, was to persuade the federal government that Georgia was making a good-faith effort to deal with sprawl. GRTA would not try to force citizens to live and work where they did not want to. It would not fret about new airports straddling the gnat-line. It would not worry about running passenger trains hither and yon from Macon, Athens, Columbus and beyond.

It would simply help uncork the funnel of federal transportation funds.

Unhappily, the cork still hovers over the mouth of the funnel, while GRTA runs amok, making dark threats to local governments.

And several suburban Republicans are having a hissy fit.

The GOP's Smart Growth Task Force is pleading with Gov. Roy Barnes to regain control of his bureaucratic monster before it's too late.

''Bring some sanity to this situation,'' says a note directed to Barnes from the Republicans.

Rep. Steve Stancil, R-Canton, chairman of the Smart Growth Task Force, says: ''There is no evidence that high-density housing reduces traffic or air pollution. In fact, nonpartisan research shows that dense-packed housing increases congestion and smog. We don't know where the governor and GRTA are going with this cramming proposal, but we urge them to slow down and take a hard look at the consequences of adopting this plan.''

Sen. Tom Price, R-Roswell, a member of the Task Force, raises a red flag on the mass-transit issue, citing the failures of commuter rail in Paris, France, to reduce traffic and bad air. ''If (mass transit) won't work in Paris, why do we think it will work in Atlanta?'' asks Price.

Forsyth County Commissioner John Kieffer chimes in: ''You have some very well-meaning people whose idea of future development is townhomes stacked next to MARTA stations. While that is appropriate for Atlanta, I feel that this has no place in a predominantly rural county like Forsyth.''

The Barnes administration will have its hands full in the next session of the legislature. Changing the state flag may take center stage. The governor already has drawn up an ambitious Education Reform Plan, Phase II, which he will push through the General Assembly against steadily growing opposition from teachers' unions.

The last thing Barnes wants to hear is more fussin' about sprawl. He probably thought -- or at least hoped -- he had handled that issue with the creation of GRTA. Instead, GRTA is on its way to becoming a giant new political headache for Barnes and his allies.

The pain is likely to get worse. In a matter of days, Republicans and other critics of GRTA are likely to ask embarrassing questions about conflicts of interest on the GRTA board.

For instance, who stands to gain most from the campaign for high-density development? Could it be the most high-profile and outspoken member of the GRTA board, the fabulously successful John Williams, whose company builds and manages apartments, mostly in urban settings served by mass transit? Apartment living, that's what high-density housing is finally all about, isn't it?